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Sunday, 11 August 2013

BRANDED MEDICINES ARE A BURDEN ON THE COMMON MAN

"Prices
of branded medicines are generally higher than prices of equivalent generic
medicines due to promotional efforts made in selling such products. Besides,
some branded drugs enjoy patent protection and a number of drugs are not
covered under regulation through the Drug Prices Control orders.”

Who will tell us the Generic names..The doctors would always suggest
Branded expensive medicines..And in cases of Health who will do the research in
those times and search fr generic meds....decide on which to take..And not take the
doctor's descrips.!

Doctors should be forced to write generic medicines only through
legislation and all the Pharma companies should manufacture and retail generic
medicines compulsorily to avoid harassment to the patient and public. However
quality checks and enforcement of these checks is equally important to check
scrupulous manufactures and companies playing with the life of patient.

There should be law to enforce the Pharma companies to provide medicine
at effort-able rates. This is an too much old issue that,they charge some 10 to
20 times more than its worth . In Private stores , we never get generic
medicines. Doctors also never prescribe generic medicine. In govt stores also
we never able to get most of the medicines. In India seldom poor people cry in
Pain . But always cry while purchasing medicine. Some time they know the
consequences still unwilling to take . Pharma companies earn in crores while general people suffers. So We
need strict regulation regarding the price of medicines . Also it should be
enforced upon all Indian and non-indian Pharma companies.

This move has brought in renaissance in the life of larger section of
people. It is more like a boon to the people of mid-level and lower-level
income group. It's the most welcoming initiative for the upliftment of the
society. In addition to life-saving drugs, inclusion of all other standard
drugs in the list of Fair Price Medical Shops is what the need of the hour.

it is a good social contribution of Amir Khan who revealed the truth. it
will help those who will buy medicine. it is always true that in a long
marketing channel with more marketing agencies involved price spread is high
and as a result consumers pay more resulting in disequilibrium and loss of
welfare. It is true in all commodities which change hands before reaching the
consumers and producers' share in consumers' rupee is quite low. Apart from
medicines can we think for other agricultural and industrial commodities?

The
government has made it mandatory for government
hospitals and government
doctors to prescribe only generic drugs, instead of expensive
branded medicines. the government had decided to procure and supply only
generic medicines to government hospitals and asked the health department to
examine a proposal to make it mandatory for all shops selling drugs to also
sell generic medicines only.

It is required for the health department to ensure that all doctors in
government hospitals should prescribe only generic medicines instead of branded
[ones] with immediate effect. In giving license, it will be stipulated that the
pharmacy has to keep generic medicines.

We
cannot stop pharmacies from selling medicines of different brands. But now they
have to keep generic medicines as well."

Most
hospitals and health centers were equipped with the necessary medical equipment
and test laboratories, but their proper utilization in the interest of the people
was equally necessary.

Companies
take full advantage of their branding strategy and the patents granted to them.
They feel that they can charge premium price for their products because ,

1. these brands are prescribed by their
doctors and patients buy the prescribed brands only.

2. The
priority of a person in pain is that he should get immediate relief. he buys so
to say the standard brand.

3. The
manufacturer in the name of quality and dependability charges higher prices
that are beyond the price of generic.

What is a generic drug?

A generic drug is made after the expiry of the patent of the brand-name drug,
generally after 20 years.

Difference between generic and branded drugs
A generic drug contains the same ingredients as the branded drug and in the
same concentration, but the two drugs may differ in colour, shape, taste,
inactive ingredients, preservatives and packaging

Why are generic drugs cheaper?

A company spends lot of money on developing and marketing a branded drug. After
the patent expires for the drug, other companies can produce the generic drug
at much lower development costs and, therefore, sell it for less .

there is no doubt that it's doctors who push the sale of medicines. I
strongly feel that government should run a campaign how generic drugs
(non-branded) are equally good.

You
can get the generic version of a medicine if you know the generic brand name!
For example the branded Augmentin 625(Amoxicillin 500 and Pottassium
Clavulanate125), a powerful antibiotic coats Rs.285 for a strip of 6(one
course). The drug AB CV which has the same composition costs Rs.100 or lesser.
Not sure if they are equally effective, though. All Chemists stock generics.
You need to specifically ask for it

It is recommended that government take steps to ensure all the
medicines and surgical disposables are available at affordable rates. While
doing this, government should also ensure that Indian pharma companies were
responsible for making affordable drugs available at good affordable rates not
only in India, but around the world also.

While drafting DPCO, it should be observed that the price should
be such that the manufacturer makes some decent (decent means decent) margin,
because otherwise they may stop production and the common man still suffers due
to non-avaiability. There are many small units, who are making a meager profit
in manufacturing and selling generic products. If that margin would not be
available, many such units won't survive. That would mean many workers would
loose their livelihood. While deciding the DPCO prices, they also have to
consider the volatility in the raw material price.

Thare also should be provision to allow higher price for any
company having research activity, which costs big sum. Else government can
sponsor such activity by giving grants for this and in turn have some share in
revenue generated if any molecule developed successfully. This way India can
remain an important player in world pharma market.

All the factories of Generic Medicines should be highly assured for
their quality. Regular checks of their lots must be done from third party QA
labs. This way we can be sure of their quality. Though its also true that
people are suffering from pirated drugs which are 100 % for branded drugs only
and no body is doing their duty to curb them. It has also been found that there
are several Bulk drug manufacturers many time not known to common man and just
being packed in some brand at much higher cost. So it is always not true that
branded drugs are always safe and Generics are dangerous.

It is high time, GOI shall bring out a system like PDS for Generic
Medicine to the needy millions. It is time a big brake to be applied for
incessant looting of citizens by pharma giants in the name of 'branded'
medicines.

Generic medicines if manufactured by reputed companies is alright.
But there are thousands of such companies which work like cottage industries
and the quality cannot be believed blindly. There are no proper checking of
their working. Quality control may exist only on paper and not in practice.
With so much corruption going on in all government offices it will be a risk to
get medicines from a company one has not heard of. It is safer to go for
medicines manufactured by established and reputed ones.

companies have to spend money on R&D.... and make a medicine and
then take a patent.. generic drugs, just need to copy a medicine that is
already in the market.... and dont need to advertise them.. as govt is buying
most of it.. and then the govt does not sell it for profit.. hence cheaper..
its like saying iphone is 45k and chinese replica is 10k both have the same
internal circuitry.

There is no concept of generic drugs in India, as all the drug
available in market having brand names. People often referring medicines
available in hospital pharmacy as actual drug name as generic drugs which are
cheap because they directly brought from manufacturers.however definition of
generic says that all the drug available in market after first innovator drug
are called generic drugs which should be available in market without brand
names. Which is not the case in India. Moreover there is no regulatory
mechanism to ensure quality of drug in India at time of approval of such drugs.
Therefore doctors also don't prefer to prescribe such drugs as they can harm the
patents.